Part 9 (1/2)
Everybody had at last gone to bed in the big house-Linda and Uncle Rufus on the third floor, and Mrs. McCall and the rest of the family in their several rooms on the second. Midnight had some time pa.s.sed when everybody was awakened-but that gradually-by a tintinnabulation of silvery bells.
”What is it?” gasped Dot, from her little bed, to Tess, in hers. It was a wonder that the littlest Corner House girl woke up at all, for she was usually a very sound sleeper. But her head was full of Santa Claus on this night. ”Is that reindeer bells, Tess?” she demanded.
”Then they are inside the house, and I don't believe they could come down our chimney, big as it is,” declared Tess.
”Sammy Pinkney came down it once-you remember?”
”But he doesn't ring like bells,” was the very practical reply.
Even Aunt Sarah Maltby heard the bells. She poked her head out of her room door in her nightcap and demanded:
”What's all that? Those are the bells on the Christmas tree. What does it mean, Mrs. MacCall?”
The housekeeper was already up. She came out into the hall and sent the little folks back to bed.
”Whatever it is, human or sperrit, I'll be goin' by myself tae see,” she declared. ”The night before Christmas is no time for you bairns to be out of your beds.”
”Do you s'pose it is Saint Nick?” asked Dot, in an awed tone.
”It may be,” said the housekeeper, descending the front stairs. ”And if it is, he doesn't want to see you. Go back to bed as I tell ye.”
CHAPTER VII
INTO TROPIC CLIMES
The tinkle of the bells on the Christmas tree was silvery in tone, and there was nothing about the sound to frighten even Dot. But it was mysterious, and Mrs. MacCall approached the door of the dining-room with some hesitation.
She had only recently left the room with the arrangements completed for Christmas morning when the youngsters should first run down to look at the present-laden tree, and exclaim in ”Ohs!” and ”Ahs!” at the sight.
She could imagine nothing that would cause the tree to sway and thus make the silvery bells tinkle. There was no window open which would create a draft and so wag the branches back and forth. What could be the cause of the bells' ringing?
She turned the k.n.o.b of the door and pushed it open a tiny bit. There was no light in the room, although the tree was strung with electric bulbs of rainbow hues. Instead of an open fireplace now, as there once had been, there was a gas log under the old mantelpiece. But this was turned off. The steam-heating plant in the cellar warmed the house sufficiently and the logs were used only in the fall and spring before and after Uncle Rufus and Neale started the heater.
Mrs. MacCall's finger searched for the b.u.t.ton on the wall just inside the door which would light all the lamps in the room. And just then she heard a m.u.f.fled thumping sound, and the bells all rang again!
”Slos.h.!.+” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the housekeeper. ”'Tis ghosties, sure enough!”
She did not mean that, of course. She was just puzzled. But she knew, in spite of the darkness, that there was something moving under the Christmas tree where the rug had been turned back for the framework, which held the tree, to stand.
”Who is it?” demanded Aunt Sarah from above.
”I'm nae so sure 'tis not Sammy Pinkney,” grumbled the housekeeper.
”He's always up to something. To be sure! I was right,” she added, for now she had pressed the electric light b.u.t.ton and the whole room was ablaze with light.
The thing under the tree jumped again and the bells once more jingled.
The housekeeper stepped forward in wonder. Was it another big cat?
Or-or--